There were so many important events about to unfold that my absence would seem increasingly puzzling: Angina’s funeral, the ceremony to make Rushton chieftain of the new shire of Obernewtyn, Zarak’s bonding and the Choosing Ceremony – I should have been present at all of them. Perhaps Rushton and the coercer-knights would come to the conclusion that I had been abducted and a party would be sent out to search for me. Perhaps those seeking me would discover Miryum and free her from her captors, whereupon she would reveal the whereabouts of Straaka’s bones. In that case the bones would have been discovered because of me after all. For Ahmedri’s sake, and for Miryum’s if she truly was captive somewhere, I hoped so.

But no one would find me.

Eventually Rushton would ask Maryon. I knew that the Futuretell guildmistress had foreseen my departure, and I prayed that, at the least, she would tell him that he must not seek me, and would remind him that he had sworn to go with the expedition to the Red Land. He always put duty before his own wishes and desires and it was better he travelled to the Red Land than stayed behind hunting the Land fruitlessly for me.

The hedge that bordered the road from the front gate to the main house came in sight, putting an end to my tangled speculations. There was a narrow space between the end of the hedge and the outer wall and Maruman slipped through it without hesitation. I pushed through too, fending off the thin odorous branches of the hedge and manoeuvring the heavy stone sword after me.

I was standing on the road just inside the main gate into Obernewtyn. I looked back towards the house, but the mist cast a veil over it. Whether it was real or spun out of memories, as I stared I seemed to see the enormous grey façade of the rambling many-winged building that was Obernewtyn, which had so intimidated me when I first set eyes on it years before.

And somewhere within it was Rushton, unaware of the pain that awaited him.

‘I am so sorry, my love,’ I whispered.

‘Come, Elspethlnnle,’ Maruman sent.

And so I turned my back on the great house and passed through the gates of Obernewtyn for the last time with as little idea of what lay ahead of me as when I had first come through them, years before.

Chapter 17

17

The mist seemed thicker outside the wall, as Maruman glided through it to enter the dark cleft of forest on the other side of the road that ran from the main gate along the outside of the wall to the farm gate. Crossing it, I glanced along it to see a great long line of wagons standing nose to tail, which meant all of the areas set aside within the walls for visitors were full.